Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

'By Frank Peters. I became an entrepreneur because I had to. My life in Corporate America wasn’t going so well. I never got fired, but I did quit one job the day before I was to be let go. I used my employee discount that last day to purchase a Compaq luggable computer and drove with my brother to Las Vegas. Now, this would be questionable therapy for anyone who just became unemployed, except we were heading to Comdex , the annual computer show that would eventually grow huge as would th

Las Vegas 81

Las Vegas Los Angeles Software Review America 81

deal architect

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

'My blogs are celebrating their 9th birthdays – Deal Architect this month, its younger sibling New Florence in March. Together, they represent my longest “book” – 9,000 posts long. It’s been quite a run. In many ways they are ying.

350

350

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

'Building a business from scratch is never easy. Far too many businesses – around 80% to be exact – fail within the first 18 months. Did you know that in 2009, about 550,000 small businesses opened in America, yet 660,000 of them actually closed down in the same year? It’s a shocking statistic. Many of those business failures close for a variety of reasons, but surprisingly almost half of them (46%) is down to sheer incompetence, and 11% of them because of the lack of experienc

Bootstrapping 244

Bootstrapping America Business Plan Finance 244

The Next Web

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

'George Deeb is the Managing Partner at Chicago-based Red Rocket Ventures , a startup consulting and financial advisory firm based in Chicago. You can follow George on Twitter at @georgedeeb and @RedRocketVC. One of the questions I get, more often than not, is what is the appropriate valuation of my business. This is typically in conjunction with an upcoming financing or pending takeover offer.

Valuation 167

Valuation Forecast Seed Stage .Net 167

Speaker: Nick Noreña, Innovation Coach and Advisor, Kromatic

Every startup and innovation project exists within an ecosystem that either helps or hurts that project. As innovation managers, we need to keep a pulse of that ecosystem and make sure we're helping those innovation projects we're managing every step of the way. In this webinar, Nick Noreña will walk through an Innovation Ecosystem Model that he and his team at Kromatic have developed to help investors, heads of product, teachers, and executives understand how they can best support innovation in

Startup

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

'Global social media analytics and optimization company Socialbakers has announced the opening of its new Asia-Pacific headquarters based in Singapore. Prague, Czech Republic-based Socialbakers’ expansion into the region comes on the heels of its successful Series C funding round to the tune of US$26 million earlier this month, and looks to tap on the rapidly growing demand for social analytics as social media becomes increasingly dominant as part of the marketing mix for brands in this re

Asia 178

Asia Czech Republic Singapore Social Media 178

Rembrandt Communications

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

'3 Sales Pitch Tips to Grow Your Business… Fast! It’s almost March. How is your year going so far? I don’t know about you, but I’ve talked to many small business owners who are really watching their budgets closely and saving as much money as possible. With this in mind, it can be more difficult […].

Sales 140

Sales Email Small Business Management 140

Version One Ventures

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

'When developing a business model, every software and app start-up eventually faces the same core question: Should we focus on monetizing customers or driving usage? For consumer apps, this question has been answered (or mostly answered): the best approach is to offer a free service to help attract and retain users. As Fred Wilson put it : “When scale matters, when network effects matter, when your users are creating the content and the value, free is the business model of choice.”.

Viral 154

Viral B2B B2C Business Model 154

The Equity Kicker

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

'When I talk about our approach to investing I often say that the next generation of successful companies will be most notable for their amazing products. That contrasts with previous eras where great sales and marketing capabilities and great engineering were often more important than product (think about the great enterprise software success stories of the 1990s…).

Product 123

Product Valuation Retention Acquisition 123

Gregg Fraley, Author of Jack's Notebook

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

'SNARK ALERT. I’m not trying to be snarky. I am snarky. I’ve always been snarky. I like being snarky, it’s fun. Here’s the problem: Being snarky is a bit like being the boy that cried wolf. When you’re being a smart ass just for practice you often stretch the truth. Okay, I often throw the truth out the window to be funny or to shock — but not in this blogg!

Leadership 113

Leadership Design Restful Management 113

Mike Michalowicz

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

'In 1982, George Kelling and James Wilson published an article entitled Broken Windows. The article argued that a crucial and necessary step to keep order in a dangerous neighborhood, was to fix broken and unrepaired windows. Kelling and Wilson state that if people in these neglected neighborhoods see a building with broken windows, that they will be tempted to break more windows (I suspect you may have even felt an inkling of desire to throw a rock at a building with broken windows yourself).

Leadership 102

Leadership Community Employee Management 102

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

'There is a lot of advice out there saying that you should find something you are passionate about “and you won’t work another day in your life.” But if you follow that advice, are you are living your hobby or running a business? A hobby is something that can probably go away without drastically impacting your lifestyle or income. You could be working full-time on it—it could even be paying your bills—and it still might be a hobby, not a business.

Vesting 101

Vesting Cloud CPA Finance 101

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

'Situation: a bunch of venture dudes shouting one-line quips while the speaker tries to get through their presentation. My first reaction was “shhhh.” My second was, “none of these are good jokes.” My third was, “OMG, this is Twitter In Real Life!” That’s not a criticism of Twitter – although I have self-selected into a feed that’s “venture dude” heavy – but rather an observation about how online behavior can change offline

Community 88

Community 88

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

'Last week, after I came home from several weeks of travel, I found a curious sign posted to the front door of my local gym: Yes, the note was directed at me—I was one of those “Target Breach” victims whose bank issued them a new credit card, and who forgot to update their credit card information at Danny’s gym, Main Street Kickboxing. I felt terrible.

United States 84

United States Security Small Business Revenue 84

SiliconHills

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

'By Amy McCullough Reporter with Silicon Hills News With online commerce ever increasing, retailers with big investments in physical storefronts are trying to drive good, old-fashioned customer foot traffic to those locations. Austin-based Digby is helping businesses do that by gathering mobile data about which customers are shopping when and where.

Customer 76

Customer Austin Mobile Marketing 76

ithacaVC

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

'I like the practice of VCs giving term sheets that provide for a specific size for the total round and then stating how much the specific VC will contribute. For example, “VC will serve as the lead investor up to $400,000; Company would source balance of the round up to $600,000 (so round size would be up to $1,000,000 in the aggregate).”. At the early stage, the founding team often has lots of “interest” lined up waiting for a lead.

Term Sheet 71

Term Sheet Aggregator Lead Investor Early Stage 71

Jeff Hilimire

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

'I’m honored to be asked by Chris Richards and the Startup Grind crew to speak at their Fireside Chat on March 11th. I’ve really enjoyed their past events as the talks are intimate so you get to know the entrepreneur fairly well by the end of it. Things I’ll likely be talking about: - Where I got my entrepreneurial roots. - My (growing) family. - Starting my first company at 21 years old in the dorm room (and the moving it to my mom’s basement). - Growing that first compa

Private Equity 72

Private Equity Atlanta Equity Leadership 72

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

'ROIKOI is a new way to find and feature the great people at every company.

89

89

Duct Tape Marketing

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

'Equity Crowdfunding: Your Solution for Small Business Financing? written by Guest Post read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is Salomon Wancier – Enjoy! Small businesses haven’t had it easy since the dawn of the recession in 2008, but thankfully they’ve enjoyed a steady (if slow) recovery.

Equity 60

Equity Finance Small Business Accredited Investor 60

Early Growth Financial Services

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

'When it comes to selecting the right business entity for your company, there are many options. There’s no one best choice for the type of business entity you legally choose, just the best choice for your particular company based on your goals. To help you choose the best structure for your company, I’ve outlined the most common types of businesses.

Startup 48

Startup Naming 48

The Next Web

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

'David Noy is CMO of Ginger Software , a language learning and productivity boosting software for ESL and native English speakers. Running a successful software startup is a challenging prospect, requiring constant attention to shifts in technology, industry trends, and user commentary. Common mistakes such as rushing into early deployment before your product is ready are tempting and often costly.

Developer 159

Developer Architecture API Later Stage 159

crowdSPRING Blog

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

'Every day on the crowdSPRING Twitter account and on my own Twitter account , I post links to posts or videos I enjoyed reading or viewing. These posts and videos are about logo design , web design , startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Here are some of the links that I’ve liked and shared this past week!

Social Media 96

Social Media Small Business Design Media 96

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

'A few weeks ago a I wrote a post titled It’s Not Right vs. Left, It’s Old vs. New about the conflict between innovators and incumbents. As a society, we are just starting to wander into the real structural conflict around this and I don’t believe our government, either at the local, state, or federal level, really knows what to do about it, or how to effectively engage in it.

Internet 142

Internet Equity Stock Government 142